I thought I would write a quick post while I waited for my lunch to soften.

I just came back from giving an English lesson to 7yr old J, I also teach her younger brother, E, on another day. I really enjoy teaching the children, I suspect I have more fun than they do! Please note I use the word teach loosely, I am not a teacher and the lessons are very informal. However to my delight the children are learning more words in English each week.

I know what mood I will find them in depending which Nanny is with them. Today was sombre Nanny day! I found little E sitting at the kitchen table with his thumb in his mouth, a sooky blanket in his other hand and a bowl of tea in front of him. Yes a bowl of tea! As it was not the day for E’s lesson I just gave him a quick kiss on his sad little face and promised him we would play soccer football next week. We count as we kick and I repeat a few chosen words such as ball and kick, over and over again. Its a process of delayed gratification for me, he’s 4 so I wont necessarily hear him associate the words correctly for a couple of weeks. Today J, after spending some time each lesson teaching her ‘head and shoulders’ and only getting drips and drabs from her, spontaneously sang the whole song, with actions. I checked she could identify the body parts without the song and out of order from the song….she did!!! I picked her up and swung her around joyously. She is also learning the names of colours so I got to do some colouring in which was a lot of fun and she was very impressed that I didn’t colour outside the lines. I didn’t tell her I was too! We then went for a walk and named the colour of each car we passed, the colours of the traffic lights and the graffiti. As we walked I repeated the word walking, as we ran I repeated running and as we skipped, skipping. She then heard the word exhausted!